Rose Bowl Preview: Stanford vs. Wisconsin

There’s not much of a difference between Stanford and Wisconsin, who meet in the 99th Rose Bowl on Tuesday in Pasadena.

Both teams feature physical defenses and power running games. In an era dominated by the spread offense (four receivers, no huddles and shotgun snaps on third-and-one), the Cardinal (11-2) and Badgers (8-5) want to wrestle in a phone booth.

The Pac-12 champion Cardinal will rely mostly on senior Stepfan Taylor, but Big Ten champ Wisconsin uses a three-headed monster led by senior Montee Ball. The trio also features junior James White and redshirt freshman Melvin Gordon.

Both teams delight in deploying the so-called jumbo packages, in which 200-pound receivers are replaced by 300-pound linemen and all 11 players are lined up within a few yards of the ball.

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Offensive coordinator Matt Canada has found the proper mix with the threesome, which has helped Wisconsin rush for 3,091 yards, including 903 in the Badgers’ last three games.

Wisconsin ran for 539 yards in a 70-31 victory over Nebraska in the Big Ten title game.

”These three backs have played so well,” Canada said last week. “You look at what Melvin did in the championship game. He’s a young player who has come on. (But) you watch James White. He (comes) to work every day.

”Montee gets all the credit, and it’s well-deserved for what Montee has done. But you look at what James has done. You watch our explosive plays and James White is unbelievable.”

Ball is the NCAA all-time touchdown leader with 82. He has 5,040 career rushing yards, including 1,730 yards this season and 21 scores.

White and Gordon have been solid change-of-pace backs while rushing for 832 and 582 yards, respectively. Gordon and Ball rushed for 216 and 202 yards, respectively, against Nebraska.

”Montee Ball, he usually ends up in the backfield and he’s running downhill at you, the power game, all the downhill stuff,” Stanford linebacker Chase Thomas said. “Then (White) and (Gordon) also like to get on that jet sweep action and really test your speed on the perimeter and also throw in some reverses with those guys as well.

”We know what they like to do, whether they’re split out wide, that fast motion type stuff. But you’ve got to focus in on both the inside run and the outside run at the same time. The closest to them is facing our offense.”

Tuesday’s key battle is expected to be the Wisconsin trio against the Cardinal front seven, which has helped limit the opposition to 87 yards rushing per game. That’s good for third in the nation.

”They’re very physical,” Ball said of Stanford. “They’re very big. They fly downhill and really attack the run game and do a great job.

”Their `D’ line is very physical and very good. We like to really ... we like to compare them to Penn State because they play smart, they play with a lot of heart and they’re well-coached, so it’s going to be a very physical game.”

On offense, Stanford’s goal isn’t to make the big plays but execute the basic ones: use the running game to set up play-action passes downfield to tight ends Zach Ertz and Levine Toilolo.

The Cardinal comes into the game with a seven-game winning streak since an overtime loss to BCS National Championship Game finalist Notre Dame in October. Their run includes wins over four ranked opponents, including a win on the road to the then-top ranked Oregon Ducks.

Jon Wilner contributed to this story, with stats from The Sports Xchange